In this wordless ‘chapter’ book Muffel, a kind chunky lion, and Plums, a little rabbit, share a house together. They are good friends – in a similar way to Ernest and Celestine – with Muffel in the parental role and Plums in the child one.

The Contents page of the American edition (below) lists nine separate stories, of differing complexity and length, with an illustration above featuring Muffel and Plums both reading books to themselves, Muffel is relaxing in an armchair and Plums is sitting contentedly on the floor, leaning back against Muffel’s chair. So there is a clear message here that reading is fun, despite these stories having no text other than their titles.

German graphic artist and painter Lilo Fromm (1928-2023) was born in Berlin and began illustrating picturebooks in 1957. Over her lifetime, she completed over 250 books and was translated into 22 languages. In 1967 she won the prestigious Deutscher Jugendbuchpreis (German Children’s Book Prize) for the best picture book of the year, The Golden Bird, a Brothers Grimm fairytale.

Fromm is probably best known for her use of vivid colour, but in Muffel and Plums she has illustrated the stories in black-and-white ink line on a white background. In deft strokes, she skilfully portrays action, humour and emotion, all shown through a series of variously sized panels and the occasional full page.

Shown in this article are spreads from two stories, number two ‘The Mouse’ and number nine ‘Snow’.

‘The Mouse’ (above) is told over two spreads and features Muffel trying to catch a mouse that is running around the kitchen, scaring Plums and putting them off their game of Nine Men’s Morris.

After some mishaps, Muffel eventually succeeds in catching the mouse under a pot. Satisfied, he releases it outside.

The friends return to their game, but in the background we see two more mice scuttling beside the cooker (above). Maybe Muffel hasn’t been quite as successful as he thought!

Snow is a longer story that covers five spreads. The opener (above) shows Plums trying to clear the path outside their front door. He is unable to do it on his own and calls for Muffel to help.

The narrative in this story is more complex and requires quite a bit of ‘decoding’ by the child reader. Luckily, there is a running joke to keep them entertained, whereby Plums is constantly getting covered with snow. When he is on the verge of being buried, his loyal friend Muffel is on hand to dig him out.

When Plums brings out a tray of tea and cups, he is irresistibly tempted to throw a snowball at Muffel. Muffel joins in the fun and retaliates. But, accidentally, Plums falls backwards onto the tea things, smashing them.

Anxious that he is hurt, Muffel goes to give Plums a reassuring cuddle. And after, they sensibly decide to go inside for their hot drinks, admiring the snow from behind the safety of a glass window (below).

My copy of this book is an ex-library one that has clearly been borrowed several times. The charming endpapers (slightly obscured in the picture below)  show Plums picking a bunch of flowers to give to Muffel. Sadly, just as he gets to his friend, he trips and spills the flowers everywhere. But Muffel just smiles patiently. A light line under the images shows the child how to follow this mini story – a generous extra gift to the reader.

Lilo Fromm lived in both France and Germany. She died, aged 94, in Hamburg.